Why do some young individuals stay with their maternal group while others quickly establish themselves as independent? What are the causes and fitness consequences of this key difference in life-history strategy? This project will investigate these questions using free-ranging male fallow deer fawns as the model.
As in many species including humans, there is considerable variation in the age at which the young leave their mother. Why is this the case? What are the causes for this decision to leave or not? Further, the consequences for the development of the young, its future survival and reproductive success remains unclear. Fallow deer are an ideal model system in which to investigate these questions.
From birth young fallow deer go through several life-critical stages. While initially they are fully dependent on the mother for nutrition, fawns experience a gradual withdrawal of this maternal investment until fully weaned at about six months of age. The mothers decision regarding when and how much to restrict resources impacts on fawn growth influencing adult body size whilst also affecting the fawns over-winter survival.
Weaning also coincides with a change in the fawns behaviour; specifically, a decline in social contact with the mother and a broadening of social networks involving other fawns and adults. For males in particular, withdrawal of investment promotes dispersal from the female herd and integration into male-only bachelor groups containing older males.
This project investigates why some males disperse and others do not in a large free-ranging population of fallow deer. Specifically, whether males that disperse invest in more in growth prior to dispersal, whether dispersing males have a bolder personality style, and whether they have wider social networks (i.e. greater levels of socialisation) than males that remain in the maternal group.
Start Date: 1 October 2022
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